Coronavirus: wealthy Chinese families say pandemic has eroded appetite for overseas schooling and investing
- Chinese families have had their desire to emigrate, educate their children, or invest abroad damaged by the coronavirus
- Economic uncertainty, Western responses to the pandemic, as well as rising anti-China sentiment in parts of the world are causing rich Chinese to reconsider plans
The coronavirus pandemic could permanently change wealthy Chinese families’ plans to send their children to study abroad or to use investment vehicles to emigrate overseas, according to a series of interviews with families in the mainland.
A mix of pandemic-based problems for China’s urban rich, including the sudden uncertainty over future incomes, the health risks of living abroad, and China’s deteriorating image in Western countries, have forced many to reconsider, if not totally give up, plans to send their kids to American or British schools, or to buy property in Canada or Australia.
“Many of us are very surprised by how poorly some advanced countries in western Europe have handled the epidemic. We always thought that both the quality of life and health in Western societies were far better than in China, but now our views have changed,” Alice Tan, who runs a tea trading firm in Guangzhou, wrote in a chat group of over 300 members.
The group chat on Chinese social media platform WeChat was created to share information on studying and investing abroad, common pursuits for wealthy Chinese families before the pandemic.
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Among group members, the desire to live overseas has been dampened in recent months, Tan said. In particular, the recently popular idea of sending underage children to study abroad has been abandoned, she added.